Nerdsourcing: Duck Quest?, GaymerCon, The Silver Tree, And The Great Heartland Hauling Co.

Nerdsourcing finds you the best crowd sourcing projects from Kickstater, Indiegogo, and other such sites, and brings them straight to your wallet. Give, help spread the word, or just find out what’s going to be the hot new thing in the future; nerdsourcing is there to help support the dreamers out there looking to make the impossible a reality or those looking for the next big thing an edge on the competition. Time is limited to fund these projects so don’t wait to long.

The title might be a question, but your support should not. Duck Quest? is an 8-bit RPG adventure that puts the player in the role of a mother duck trying to find her ducklings who have become lost in the big city park. You’ll encounter a variety of characters throughout the area who you can interact with, despite being a duck, like a painter and a hot dog vendor.

The charm of Duck Quest? comes from the simple pixelated graphics that give everything a pleasant and happy feeling. It transforms the quest to find her children into an adventure that isn’t about fear, but about exploration.

Reward: For $5, a custom drawing of your choice from the lead artist can be yours.

GaymerCon is the first gaming and tech convention with a specific focus on fostering a strong, safe community around Gay, Lesbian, Transgendered, Gender Queer, and Bisexual gamers. That’s something that the industry has been missing and in dire need of for some time now. They aren’t alone either, there’s a great video that was filmed at ComicCon that features dozens of industry icons that support GaymerCon.

GaymerCon is meant to be a place for all geeks to come together, so even if you don’t fit the general audience, you can still come. There will be an exhibitor space, cosplay, guest speakers, live music, social events, and panel discussions. It’s all about bringing the gaming community together in a place that’s safe of discrimination.

Reward: GaymerCon isn’t until August 3-4th, 2013, but for a $35 donation, you’ll get a 2-day badge to the 2013 show.

The Silver Tree is a character driver story-based prequel to the browser-based RPG Fallen London. Don’t let that scare you away though; you won’t need knowledge of the previous title to play The Silver Tree. Focusing on four characters, the historical fantasy covers the Mongol Empire during the 13th Century. The relationships built during this famous dynasty might just be the very reason that it falls.

The Silver Tree is a browser-based non-linear PRG in the same vane of classic text adventure games. It uses images to stimulate the adventure between card scenes, instead of big-budget special effects. Players create the story by playing cards that they are dealt, crafting the adventure as they wish.

Reward: Since the game is free to play, the $5 pledge level will get you wallpapers, thanks on the credits page, and a free unlock of the first story.

We don’t think about it much, but if it weren’t for long-haul truck drivers, our nation wouldn’t run as it does now. They’re extremely important to our livelihood, The Great Heartland Hauling Co. demonstrates this by tasking players to haul products between locations while watching fuel consumption and payload delivery. It’s an extremely interesting idea that reminds me of popular board game classics like Settlers of Catan and Ticket to Ride.

The map is randomly generated each time with different location cards, tasking players to carry different cargo cubes (Soy beans, Corn, Cattle, and Pigs) between locations on the map. They must balance between keeping a high score and sacrificing points for more fuel to go to a further location in search of a higher payout.

Reward: A $25 pledge will secure you a pre-order copy of the game upon final release.